Biden Announces Intent to Nominate Califf as FDA Commissioner

Today, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. announced his intent to nominate Dr. Robert Califf as the Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to the White House, Dr. Califf is a recognized expert in clinical trial research, health disparities, health care quality, and cardiovascular medicine.

Dr. Califf previously served as FDA Commissioner in 2016-17 after being confirmed by the U.S. Senate on a 89-4 vote with bipartisan support. Califf is currently a professor of medicine at the Duke University School of Medicine and also works as Head of Clinical Policy at Verily Life Sciences. He has led many landmark clinical trials and is only of the most frequently cited authors in biomedical science with more than 1,200 publications in peer-reviewed literature.

Dr. Califf will take over from Dr. Janet Woodcock who has served in the commissioner role on an interim basis during the past year. President Biden, in announcing his nomination of Dr. Califf, applauded Dr. Woodcock’s work and called on the U.S. Senate to swiftly confirm Dr. Califf to the new position.

Additional information is available here.